10 cool features of Giantbomb you probably didn't know existed

There are lots of great features on giantbomb.

There are lots of useful features that, for some reason or another, a new user might not be aware of. For those of you who use the site frequently, there will no doubt be features here that you had forgotten existed. Sometimes new features get added without any real announcements being made as to their arrival. In making this list I surprised myself at least twice with areas of the site I had never seen before, and I use giantbomb every day.

If I miss anything, feel free to berate me in the comments below :D

#01

• The text box in which you write comments is WYSIWYG interactive. What you see is what you get: So you can press ctrl + I at any time to make your font italics for example. Or you could press ctrl + B to make everything bold as fuck.

#02

• If you want to check if the thread you are creating already exists and the search bar isn't showing any results, head to the wiki page of your chosen topic and check the "Forums" link on the left. This will show a complete list of every thread that has been linked to that game.

#03

• If you go to your navigation bar at the top of the page and go to Users > Activity Feed you can see a live updating list of everything that's happening on the site in realtime.

#04

• If you want to narrow it down, in the top right corner of the page click on the list of online users you are following and click the "Following XXX" link. This will take you to a page where you can filter the recent activity of the users you are following into blogs, who is online, and a general feed of all activity.

#05

• There's a whole trivia section of the site where you can test your videogame knowledge, with questions entirely written by other users. There are leaderboards and streaks for how many questions you can get right in a row. For me that number is about 6. Because i'm an idiot.

#06

• If you click the News button on your navigation bar and then click the Headlines tab, you can scroll through all the articles that have been posted on the site. If you haven't checked the frontpage for a few days then this is probably the best way to catch up with what's going on as some news can get pushed off the front page if it gets busy.

#07

• The Whiskey footer at the bottom of the page is a great way to see what's happening with the other whiskey sites, but if for some reason you don't want that footer cluttering up your page you can click the "Slim Footer" link at the very bottom to hide it.

#08

• If you have trouble reading the site with it's current colour settings, you can invert the primary colours using the button in your profile drop-down menu. This is great for people with bad eyesight but also people who like pain, as the white site burns the fuck out of your retinas! [EDIT: it's not actually as bad as I remember]

#09

• If you click the Help button on the navigation bar, then go to Wiki Tasks, you can find a list of all the wiki pages that need work. Completing wiki tasks will earn you bonus points. You can see the wiki leaderboards by going to the Users > Top Users link on the navigation bar.

#10

• You can actually read about the fellow members of the bomb shelter (We don't call it the bomb shelter) by clicking the "See Mini Bio" link which sits next to each users post on the forums. This is stupidly obvious but it's amazing how many people forget about it.

#BONUS

• Thanks to everyone who dropped me a comment below, one thing everyone seems to love is the Konami code which I had no idea even existed. If you input the Konami code anywhere on giantbomb you will instantly be forwarded to the Contra page. It's because of shit like this that giantbomb is the best website on the internet. The code is:

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B, A, Enter

Try it out. Go ahead, I'll wait for you.

....

Welcome back. Pretty cool, huh? :D

There are lots of other great features, too many to mention in one blog.

If I have missed anything you feel is being ignored please drop a comment and I will add it to the list. I hope that in reading this list you have found something or other that you weren't aware of that you might find useful.

Thanks For Reading

Love Sweep

There are lots of great features on giantbomb.

There are lots of useful features that, for some reason or another, a new user might not be aware of. For those of you who use the site frequently, there will no doubt be features here that you had forgotten existed. Sometimes new features get added without any real announcements being made as to their arrival. In making this list I surprised myself at least twice with areas of the site I had never seen before, and I use giantbomb every day.

If I miss anything, feel free to berate me in the comments below :D

#01

• The text box in which you write comments is WYSIWYG interactive. What you see is what you get: So you can press ctrl + I at any time to make your font italics for example. Or you could press ctrl + B to make everything bold as fuck.

#02

• If you want to check if the thread you are creating already exists and the search bar isn't showing any results, head to the wiki page of your chosen topic and check the "Forums" link on the left. This will show a complete list of every thread that has been linked to that game.

#03

• If you go to your navigation bar at the top of the page and go to Users > Activity Feed you can see a live updating list of everything that's happening on the site in realtime.

#04

• If you want to narrow it down, in the top right corner of the page click on the list of online users you are following and click the "Following XXX" link. This will take you to a page where you can filter the recent activity of the users you are following into blogs, who is online, and a general feed of all activity.

#05

• There's a whole trivia section of the site where you can test your videogame knowledge, with questions entirely written by other users. There are leaderboards and streaks for how many questions you can get right in a row. For me that number is about 6. Because i'm an idiot.

#06

• If you click the News button on your navigation bar and then click the Headlines tab, you can scroll through all the articles that have been posted on the site. If you haven't checked the frontpage for a few days then this is probably the best way to catch up with what's going on as some news can get pushed off the front page if it gets busy.

#07

• The Whiskey footer at the bottom of the page is a great way to see what's happening with the other whiskey sites, but if for some reason you don't want that footer cluttering up your page you can click the "Slim Footer" link at the very bottom to hide it.

#08

• If you have trouble reading the site with it's current colour settings, you can invert the primary colours using the button in your profile drop-down menu. This is great for people with bad eyesight but also people who like pain, as the white site burns the fuck out of your retinas! [EDIT: it's not actually as bad as I remember]

#09

• If you click the Help button on the navigation bar, then go to Wiki Tasks, you can find a list of all the wiki pages that need work. Completing wiki tasks will earn you bonus points. You can see the wiki leaderboards by going to the Users > Top Users link on the navigation bar.

#10

• You can actually read about the fellow members of the bomb shelter (We don't call it the bomb shelter) by clicking the "See Mini Bio" link which sits next to each users post on the forums. This is stupidly obvious but it's amazing how many people forget about it.

#BONUS

• Thanks to everyone who dropped me a comment below, one thing everyone seems to love is the Konami code which I had no idea even existed. If you input the Konami code anywhere on giantbomb you will instantly be forwarded to the Contra page. It's because of shit like this that giantbomb is the best website on the internet. The code is:

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B, A, Enter

Try it out. Go ahead, I'll wait for you.

....

Welcome back. Pretty cool, huh? :D

There are lots of other great features, too many to mention in one blog.

If I have missed anything you feel is being ignored please drop a comment and I will add it to the list. I hope that in reading this list you have found something or other that you weren't aware of that you might find useful.

Thanks For Reading

Love Sweep

Hey, I knew most of these! Nice list nontheless. :)

Never plug ham.  It tastes funny after that, if it doesn't explode first.

I endorse this blog. A nice helpful pointer to newer or less observant users on how to find some things on the site. 
 
Nice work :)

Must remember that.

The Activity Feed is like its own television show.

There's a wiki side to Giant Bomb that many people, including the staff, neglect.

Sweet I didn't know about #7 and #9 so nice work.

Here's one you didn't post, enter the contra code anywhere on the site and it takes you straight to the contra page.

#10

• You can actually read about the fellow members of the bomb shelter (We don't call it the bomb shelter) by clicking the "See Mini Bio" link which sits next to each users post on the forums. This is stupidly obvious but it's amazing how many people forget about it.

  

 
"

Nice list.

so where's the thread for suggesting new features? the old suggestion thread seems to be dead from what i searched.
I suggest "unions" like they had at Gamespot...ya know...in the event that maybe a Christian gamer may want to find such a sub-community in this gaming community without being virtually stoned to death by attempting to find them in the forums while making other community members feel alienated....just something that comes to mind.

How was it that arrow-keys shortcut was? It was some sort of fighting game move.
 
Down, Down, Left, Left, something?

" so where's the thread for suggesting new features? the old suggestion thread seems to be dead from what i searched. I suggest "unions" like they had at Gamespot...ya know...in the event that maybe a Christian gamer may want to find such a sub-community in this gaming community without being virtually stoned to death by attempting to find them in the forums while making other community members feel alienated....just something that comes to mind. "

It seems that I knew all this beforehand. Yay me.

Never knew most of it, will probably forget it, but there's one thing I will remember and THIS IS IT!!!  Thanks for letting me use hotkeys instead of being stuck clicking little annoying buttons -- once I have my hands at the keyboard I hate to handle a mouse.

wow that activity feed is cool

I knew everything you posted, but nice job nonetheless. 

wow, i knew more of these than i thought i would. i knew like half or a little more than that

" How was it that arrow-keys shortcut was? It was some sort of fighting game move.  Down, Down, Left, Left, something? "

This should be stickied or something.

This is good

Great job in putting together list which can help a bunch of people

Ace list. I had no idea # 1 existed.

#1 and  #9 are new to me.

Really refreshing to see a post like this amidst so many other topics bitching about the site. Kudos

haha  I just saw the activity feed update with "Sweep is now following Zimbo" I can't believe I didn't know about this.

" @Sweep said:

#10

• You can actually read about the fellow members of the bomb shelter (We don't call it the bomb shelter) by clicking the "See Mini Bio" link which sits next to each users post on the forums. This is stupidly obvious but it's amazing how many people forget about it.

  

 
"

My mini bio thing has a music player in it. :) "

well done.  you spelled 'color' wrong, though. :>

I knew about all these things.  Regardless, good blog!

I knew about all of these; nonetheless this is a very nice summary.

I wish the activity feed was actually longer in length, its hard to keep track of the constant twitter and profile updates. =/

" @TMThomsen said:

" How was it that arrow-keys shortcut was? It was some sort of fighting game move.  Down, Down, Left, Left, something? "

Contra code, bro. "

How did I never notice 'see mini bio' before? Weird.
 
Great post man.

The white site is actually the only way to make the site usable on the monitor I'm currently using. Love burning those retinas.

Genius, Sweep.  Pure, unadulterated genius.  Thanks for putting this up.

good job on that. i knew a lot of them. but still is good for people that are new here.

The one I really didn't think about using before was the activity feed. It's strangely hypnotic staring at the constant stream of updates and new people who start following all of the guys who run the site.

good shit :)

Nice one, I have never noticed that "See mini bio" button until you mentioned it.

I knew about most of this, but for some reason not the Mini Bio link =/
 
Also I may add the glory that is: 

" well done.  you spelled 'color' wrong, though. :> "

You follow 60 people?! Thats absurd, I only follow 2.

Hamz is such a whore.

You know, I've looked everywhere for #4, but constantly overlooked it. Derp derp. 
 
#7 was also new to me. Nice list! 

Am I awesome since I knew all that =P